Vleck

Vleck is a surname of likely Dutch origin. It is commonly treated as a shortened or anglicized form of van Vleck, a toponymic surname derived from a place name in the Netherlands. In historical records, Vleck occurs as a standalone spelling in the United States and Canada, often among families with Dutch or Flemish ancestry. The spelling variation without the prefix is comparatively rarer today but appears in genealogical material and local histories.

In modern use, individuals named Vleck have been documented in a range of professions, including education, business, and public service. The name remains relatively uncommon, and most documentation of Vleck refers to private individuals rather than widely known public figures.

Related names include van Vleck, which has produced notable figures in science and academia. The most prominent is John Hasbrouck van Vleck (1899–1980), an American physicist and Nobel laureate in Physics in 1977, whose work helped lay the groundwork for semiclassical methods in quantum mechanics. The relationship between Vleck and van Vleck reflects common patterns of spelling variation in Dutch-derived surnames after migration.